Monday’s Value = Collaboration

Values have value, be they Core values, Personal values or Professional values. Values support beliefs. Beliefs drive behaviors. Our substance and character are built on values.

When leadership fails, you can attribute it to a difference, and even clash of values. It eludes me how industries and companies reward selfish leadership. Perhaps the western model of leadership is to be studied closely for its insouciant ways when we approvingly applaud mavericks, dropouts, iconoclasts and oddballs. Leadership charisma can easily overlook the lack of leadership effectiveness and integrity.

Collaboration seems like a good start to enhancing teams. It involves the sharing of cooperation and equity (from Gary Yardley & Sally Rundle). Our intention include:

Together, we share so that we all participate in success.

Together, we work so that we find new ways to operate.

Rapper, Jay-Z and rock-band Linkin Park collaborated on their 2004 album, Collision Course. Far from colliding into conflict, their creative efforts bore fruit for an experimental studio work that yielded several hits – a mish mash of their own songs. In the feature documentary on the accompanying DVD, you are treated to vignettes of how artistes work together with the purpose of artistic and creative output. Instead of prima donnas butting heads, they blended their talents and ideas to form a musically, complementary collaboration. Cirque Du Soleil is more than a circus; it is an energetic collaboration of acrobats, dancers and musicians.

Lead with your values!

Here are two splendid (read: add value) articles by my fellow Leadership bloggers (Michael Hyatt, and Linked2Leadership) on Guy Kawasaki’s ALLTOP portal:

http://michaelhyatt.com/my-take-on-the-vibram-fivefingers-running-shoes.html

http://linked2leadership.com/2009/09/02/leadership-lessons-from-comedy/